Bear, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Bear, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Bear lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Bear — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bear — the short answer
Bear, Delaware: USDA zone 7b, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Bear's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bear's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bear
Each reading below is measured for Bear itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBear runs about 241 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBear sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Bear is in
Bear sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bear's own centroid rather than borrowed from New Castle County.
What Grows in Bear
Every plant below cleared Bear's own zone 7b and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bear?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Bear
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Bear, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bear
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bear. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Royal Farms #161Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Henry E King JrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #3042Brownfields · 1900 ft
- All StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- DURRELL SANDBLASTING AND PRINTING COBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Waterford Pump StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Countryside Lawn & LandscapingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JAIRUS ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Ennis ElectricUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Former Garden CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RITE AID #1411Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- Wawa Food Market #844Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bear's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Bear.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bear
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bear
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bear, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Bear. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Bear
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bear average
Your land is one point inside Bear
Everything above resolves to Bear as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Bear Average
Bear Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bear
- ●One soil character for all of Bear
- ●Frost dates read at Bear's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bear's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bear
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bear, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bear averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bear — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bear average
How we know this about Bear
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bear’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Bear
When does frost risk typically end in Bear?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bear typically lands around Mar 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 13.
When is the first frost in Bear?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bear typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bear?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bear sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 5, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bear?
The federal record around Bear runs heavier than most — 2,059 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (993), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bear?
From about Oct 20 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bear's scale — its 7b band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bear's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Bear’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bear's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,702 acres it covers and 2,059 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bear's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bear's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 19 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,059 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bear, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bear's boundary and the 3,702 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bear's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bearlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bear's 3,702 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom New Castle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom New Castle County
- The growing challenges every Delaware grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Delaware
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom New Castle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bear's 3,702 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bear you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,702 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Bear-wide figureread your own land →